Urban Land-Use Patterns: An International Comparison

This paper performs a comparative analysis of urban form and metropolitan spatial change by use of estimates of population-density functions for samples of cities in the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and Japan. We find widespread evidence of decentralization during the 1960s in cities in all countries except West Germany. Comparing small and large cities, we also find that central density levels are higher and density gradients flatter for larger cities in all four samples. Both of these results tend to verify the predictions of the standard urban economic models. However, contrary to these models, we find that cities in richer countries are not necessarily more decentralized than cities in countries with lower income levels.